Pneumatic ground clearing machine



M. w. PATTON 2,561,882 PNEUMATIC GROUND CLEARING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet l July 24, 1951 Filed April 2, 1946 I NVENTOR MATTHEW W PATTON ATTORNEY July 24, 1951 M. w. PATTON PNEUMATIC GROUND CLEARING MACHINE Filed April 2, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTCR MATTHEW W, PATTON ground path in the direction indicated by the ar:

,hicle as viewed in Fig. 3); Thecurrent'iofialr' of a lever 31, which is secured to the rotatable In general the angles will be sim' ar to those 11- housing 36, and which carries a spring-controlled lustrated in Fig. 3. However, the adjusting pawl adapted to engage the teeth 39 of the rigmeans which I have provided enable these anidly-mounted quadrant 38. gles to be adjusted slightly to suit different The manner in which my device operates in 5 ground slopes and conditions. clearing the ground surface and in the collect- It will frequently happen that, when the nuts ing of nuts on the ground will be briefly deare to be gathered from the ground, there will scribed with reference to Fig. 3. As the vehicle still be some nuts in the trees which have not moves forward the strong current of air disdr pped-t esre i narse n Q anothen chargedfrom the pipe nozzle 2335 he the t ni st; h s, m y m t c opt-{hey may vehicles strikes the ground in a transverse are" dropped into forks in the branches, etc., ,instead of falling to the ground. In such cases he air blasts from blower can be used to dislodge such nuts-and; cause them to drop to the .ground... Thus, since. the housing portion 36 is \rotatably 'mounted,"as previously described, the housing 36,and with it the attached outlet pipes, the ground entirely in front of1 the .vehicle. ;and, .gg m 11'0tated1 by means of t lever 31 and blow the nuts, etc., out to the left, for example, t discharging u t directed upwardly to m p n H WeY this air blast wards' either side row of-trees as desired, blowin ip nozzle 3 w u e otherwise restricted, the nuts loose from the trees. While this is bein havca tendency to-c'r'ate a circular current Of donetheiair blasts fromi outlets 23 and 28 will air? with e u h t e es, debris, and keep -the path cleared of nuts ahead of the -ve-, some of thelishter nuts v'i u d b carried 1 mole so that no nuts jwill belost by being pressed wardly by the air" currents and scattered,-and 25 intd t 'g un under t e: h1 A Second trip settle'back down in the path left by the vehicle bf y d i b t Such w t t hous- However, the air from the second pipe nozzle ing'ss rotated back to the position shown in 28 prevents this by producing a strong second Fig.3 wilhthn generally be necessary to collect current which impinges on the current which has all the-"nuts in the desired windrows. However, o ed over the r d bip 3 en 30 compar'atively little timeis required for such a to keep the first current along the ground for n 't bf my device 310mg Such path rows and blows the nuts, leaves and debris o the ground towards the left (asviewed in Fig. .3)"; leaving a cleared line 43 at the right of the vefrom the pipe nozzle 23 is strongen'ough to clear agreater distance thus causing leaves and debris 'vajriou'smqdifications o ld of course-be ad as well as the heavier'nuts to be blown o h in the construction of the device which I have sid s m wh y nd Point 4 a ld shownfand-described without departing from'the heavier nuts will be blown to some po 9 principle or my invention, but the device illusas 46 and the lighter material will be blown still trated I have found to be very satisfactory in further to the left. I have found that this secactual operation. 0nd current of air delivered by pipe nozzle 38 l claiml: I j is more effective'ih accomplishing its purpose if 1; In a'pneumatic ground clearing machine, a

it is delivered in a broad, flatten d s r am-an t0 vehicle, a blo'wer device mounted on said vehicle, accordingly the cross-section of the discharging stea er air-discharging pipes leading from said pip noz 28 is p a l a u a as p blower device, said pipes arranged in the same viously described. Vertical plane extending transversely with re- The second pair of discharging pipe nozzles spect to the'vehicle, thedischarging mouths of EM and 32 function in the samemannerk- Thus both pipes located near the ground and one of t blast from p p 3 ages the nuts and .,.1: said mouths discharging air in a transverse any th m a remaining t p int ts and ground path'tdmove debrison theground in a blows this over to the left and the air. from pipe tran verse-di ti n ith respect t th vehicle, 32,-similarly by impi ng on the current "from the othendischarging' mouth located in the same p p 3 holds the currents to the gr01lhd,-'0a-liS4 transverse vertical plane a short distance'ahead e nuts to e cflllefited in n h transversely of said-first mentioned mouth and left of some point such as 41 and the'leaves-and discharging air obliquely downwardly onto and light debris to be scattered further to" the left into said transverse ground path, whereby the air and beyond'the windrow 48 of the nuts. The fronisaid -scond nientionedimouth by being-jim next trip of my device will then be to the left pinged upon'the ground air current set up by said of Willdl'OW 48 (as viewed in Fig. 3) and thus c9, *i'lrstmeritionedjmouthwillpreventthe tendency make a clear borderline at the left of windrow 'o'f-saidgroundflairicurrent andthedebris carried 48 corresponding to the border line lt-tof-t'he with it to rise" from'tlie' 'surface of the ground. left of the first row 42. 2. A pneumatic ground clearing machine of the With very little effort, with the use of my decharacter describediincluding'a vehiclaa pair of vice, I have been able to collect the nuts in fil in blowersfimo t 'opp sit 'si e 'of s id vehicl bert orchards into narrow windrows,- with-most a pairjof' air discharging pipes leading fromeach of the leaves and debris cleared, so that the f i low r jthe pipes ofeach-pairarranged gathering of the nuts by means of a scoop {or in thesame vertical'planeextending transversely mechanicalpicker is considerably facilitated; with resr'i'ectto tlie fvehiclepthe discharging Thearrangement of the air-discharging pipes t mouths of all fouii pipsflocated nearthegrdund'. in pairs is an important feature of myinvention, one of f thefdischar 'n'g mouths 'of e'ach" pair jc'f for I have found that the use of a single pipe, pipes-discharginga a transverse ground'path such as the discharging pipe nozzle 23, without to moVe' debr'isfon' the ground" inya transverse a companion nozzle 28-impingingasecond blast directi with--respecttof'the vehicla'th'eother upon the first, will not produce sufiiciently satdischarging-mouth in-ea,ch pair located a short isfactory results. instance-a ad *t'rans'versely of :fthe 'firsti-men The angles at which the blasts of air should tioned mouth and discharging" air obliquely be directed towards the ground to produce most down 'a'rdly 'onto andinto'thetransverse' ground efiicient results will bestbe determined by trial. :15 pet St'nientiOnd ii jh 5 whereby the air from said second mentioned mouth of each pair will be impinged upon the ground air current set up by said first mentioned mouth of the pair and will prevent the tendency of said ground air current and the debris carried 5 with it to rise from the surface or the ground.

MATTHEW W. PATTON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the 10 file of this patent:

Number 6 UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Chisholm Jan. 24, 1893 Astor Feb. 13, 1894 Smith Aug. 1, 1916 Harris Oct. 16, 1917 Mehlhaf Feb. 10, 1920 Bartlett Apr. 19,1921 Spencer 1- Dec. 6, 1921 Wenrich Oct, 1, 1929 Gaines July 7, 1931 Lawrence Oct. 10, 1939 Wisher Nov, 14, 1939 

